News Round-Up

• “Tories narrowly back Sunak to lead party into next election” – A new opinion poll shows that Rishi Sunak is narrowly backed by Conservative voters to lead the party into the next General Election, according to the Telegraph.
• “Tugendhat lined up as ‘unity candidate’ as Tory plotters discuss Sunak replacement” – A core group of Right-wing Tory MPs have been openly discussing how to get rid of Rishi Sunak and replacing him with a ‘unity candidate’ such as Tom Tugendhat, reports the Telegraph.
• “Kemi Badenoch: Britain’s diversity drive has backfired” – The Women and Equalities Minister tells the Telegraph that inclusive policies in the workplace should not come at the expense of white men.
• “Compulsory pronouns and rainbow lanyards are not the way to foster inclusion” – Most employers mean well, writes Kemi Badenoch in the Telegraph, but clumsy diversity drives are worse than useless.
• “The BBC’s anti-Israel bias is becoming dangerous” – Instead of fixing the problems with its coverage, the BBC has hit out at legitimate criticism, says Danny Cohen in the Telegraph.
• “Excess mortality still correlated with Covid vaccination rate” – On Substack, Igor Chudov looks at data from last December showing a strong positive correlation between excess mortality and Covid vaccination rates.
• “Why would mortality data by vaccine exposure be withheld from Parliament and Jane/Joe Public?” – How can you have informed consent if you do not know exactly what is going on? ask Prof. Carl Heneghan and Dr. Tom Jefferson on Trust the Evidence.
• “Ofcom’s patrician war on GB News” – The broadcast regulator thinks viewers are too dim to discern opinions from facts, writes Andrew Tettenborn in Spiked.
• “Telegraph takeover by RedBird IMI faces regulatory probe” – Ofcom warns the Culture Secretary that a UAE-backed takeover of the Telegraph would potentially be against the public interest, reports the FT – although it’s all a bit academic now that Government has announced it intends to ban foreign states owning British media companies.
• “Why the push for a four-day week is backfiring” – Forget ‘4gust’ – when it comes to a shorter week, with no decrease in pay, the stats and facts just don’t stack up, says Charlotte Lytton in the Telegraph.
• “German democracy researchers publish report on the tyrannical countries that ban opposition parties and restrict freedom of expression, which would never ever happen here” – On Substack, Eugyppius mocks German democracy researchers for focusing on the autocracy of developing nations, while overlooking problems at home.
• “Councils could be stopped from making profits out of traffic fines” – Analysis by the RAC finds that a fifth of the 100 most profitable yellow box junctions are potentially not compliant with traffic sign regulations, reports the Times.
• “Britain’s energy system will not hit Net Zero until 2035, National Grid tells Labour” – The National Grid says that Britain’s electricity networks will not hit Net Zero until 2035, undermining a key 2030 pledge by Labour, according to the Telegraph.
• “Labour will bring back ‘boiler tax’, pledges Ed Miliband” – The Shadow Energy Secretary backs plans, previously abandoned by the Tories, to impose fines on homeowners for failing to install useless, unworkable heat pumps, reports the Telegraph.
• “Ed Miliband’s dangerous Net Zero fantasy” – Ed Miliband’s promise to decarbonise electricity by 2030 and save us money in the process is doomed, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “The Tories are stuck in a Net Zero trap of their own making” – Wind is an intermittent source of energy, which means the grid can do without it, but it can’t do without fossil fuel and nuclear generation, writes Rupert Darwall in the Spectator.
• “Climate change is ‘off the charts’, with records smashed in 2023” – A new report from the World Meteorological Organisation warns that climate change is “off the charts” and presents a “defining challenge” to humanity, reports the Mail. Paging Chris Morrison…
• “Climate change – perspective is not a dirty word (Part 2)” – On Substack, Stephen Andrews discusses how a misleading portrayal of data supports the climate narrative.
• “King’s Cross station faces backlash after ‘Islamic’ message appears” – King’s Cross station bosses have hit back at critics after an Islamic message appeared on its customer information board, reports the Mail.
• “Labour accused of letting kids change gender without telling parents” – Just 28% of 68 Welsh schools say they would directly inform the family of a student’s decision to change gender, according to the Mail.
• “Teacher sacked for refusing pupil’s preferred pronouns” – A gender-critical teacher has told a tribunal he was sacked after refusing to use a trans student’s preferred pronouns, reports the Mail.
• “Justin Webb and the trans row causing a ‘meltdown’ at the BBC” – The Today presenter Justin Webb’s rebuke for a remark about ‘trans women’ has enraged his colleagues – and raises questions about the BBC’s true agenda, write Robin Aitken and Liam Kelly in the Telegraph.
• “‘Woke’ people more likely to be unhappy, anxious and depressed, new study suggests” – Psychological researchers in Finland have discovered a negative correlation between progressive ideals and levels of happiness, reports the New York Post.
• “If the woke generations are even triggered by ‘guinea pig’, it’s no wonder they’re so unhappy” – Lloyds’ new bible of ‘inclusive language’ invites us to imagine a cowardly new world without pain, hardship or loss, says Celia Walden in the Telegraph.
• “‘Seeing aborted foetus gasp for breath scarred me’” – “My months on the gynaecological ward had been the happiest and most rewarding of my short career – until I was asked to help during the termination of a pregnancy at 27 weeks,” recalls Nadine Dorries in the Mail.
• “Cambridge college axes mixed gender choir” – A Cambridge college is embroiled in a row over plans to scrap an Anglican choir to make way for more diverse musical offerings, reports Varsity.
• “Actors face prosecution for ‘abusive’ speech in SNP hate crime crackdown” – New fears have been raised that actors could be targeted by the SNP’s hate crime crackdown after police officers were told that a “public performance of a play” could be used to broadcast “abusive material”, according to the Telegraph.
• “Adobe Firefly follows in Google Gemini’s woke footsteps with photos of black Nazis, black and female founding fathers” – Adobe’s Firefly seems to be following in the woke footsteps of Google’s Gemini AI, generating photos of black Nazis and black and female founding fathers, reports the New York Post.
• “‘Google’s woke AI wasn’t a mistake. We know. We were there’” – Multiple former Google employees tell the Free Press that the Gemini fiasco stems from a corporate culture that prioritises DEI over excellence and good business sense. 
• “Another ‘conspiracy theory’ is now ‘good for you’” – The Deep State exists, and according to the New York Times, is now good for you, remarks Igor Chudov on Substack.
• “SCOTUS ponders whether the Government coerced social media platforms to censor speech” – The U.S. Supreme Court appears doubtful about claims the Biden administration is guilty of breaching the First Amendment in urging social media platforms to suppress information it deemed inaccurate or false during the pandemic, reports Reason.
• “A turbulent day for free speech at the Supreme Court” – A ‘once in a lifetime pandemic’ is no excuse to throw the First Amendment out the door, says the Washington Examiner in a leading article.
• “A compilation of Dems using the word ‘Bloodbath’” – Someone has put together a compilation of Democrats using the word ‘bloodbath’ after prominent Democrats and liberal news publishers led a pile-on against Trump for using the word in a recent speech, claiming he was threatening insurrection if he loses in November.

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